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A38
world
Sunday Guardian www.guardian.co.tt July 20, 2014
DISCLAIMER NOTICE
Please be advised that
MR RICKY FERRAN
is no longer employed with
A
and
and is not authorised to represent or transact any
business on behalf of the Company.
0719026
REUTERS SPECIAL REPORT
A giant crane towers over the
Moscow stadium where Russia will
stage the 2018 World Cup final and
mounds of earth, pipes and cables are
piled up where the soccer pitch should
be.Little is left of the Luzhniki Stadium
except its outer walls and a statue of
Communist revolutionary Vladimir
Lenin outside as Russia sets about con-
verting the Soviet-era relic into a state-
of-the-art arena.
Perched beside the River Moskva, it
is a symbol of a bigger transformation
President Vladimir Putin wants to show-
case at the World Cup---Russia s devel-
opment since Soviet days into a modern
state worthy of a seat at the table of top
nations.
It is a risky gamble.
The Winter Olympics in Sochi this
year put the spotlight on corruption,
cronyism, cost overruns and Russia s
record on democracy and gay rights.
Brazil s experience of hosting this
year s World Cup has also proved sober-
ing, with the focus on building soccer
stadiums instead of national infrastruc-
ture causing street protests and the
national team s failure on the pitch leav-
ing a hangover.
While Kremlin was able to ban
protests in Sochi during the Olympics,
tolerating them only in a designated area
far from the sporting action, a blanket
ban will be harder to enforce in 11 cities
during the World Cup finals.
Putin will be particularly vulnerable
to demonstrations in Moscow and St
Petersburg, scene of the biggest rallies
during a wave of protests against him
in the winter of 2011--12.
Double-edged sword
"It s a double-edged sword. These
state events attract attention and are a
good chance to showcase a country, but
there is no end of downsides in terms
of bad publicity," said Allison Stewart,
associate fellow in the BT Centre for
Major Programme Management at the
University of Oxford s Saïd Business
School.
Although he is less directly associated
with the World Cup than he was with
the Sochi Olympics, Putin s own personal
and political prestige will be at stake.
This is particularly important as his six-
year presidential term ends in 2018 and
he could run in an election a few months
before the finals.
Putin was in Brazil for this year s final
and sent officials to the tournament to
prepare for 2018, but it is not clear
whether Moscow has learnt lessons from
its experience of hosting the Sochi
Games and Brazil s problems in staging
the World Cup.
"There doesn t seem to have been
any soul-searching in Russia to really
understand why the cost of the Games
was so much more significant than it
was originally meant to be. If they have
done it, they certainly haven t commu-
nicated it," said Stewart, who conducts
research on events such as the Olympics.
Putin's goal:
To showcase
Russia at 2018
World Cup
Continues on Page A39
Fifa president Sepp Blatter and Russia's President Vladimir Putin take part in the official handover ceremony
for the 2018 World Cup scheduled to take place in Russia, in Rio de Janeiro on July 13. REUTERS